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Mix08 is rolling and one of the hot announcements certainly is the availability of Silverlight 2 Beta 1. It's certainly worth having a look at the 2.5 hour keynote and/or read Tim Sneath's keynote live blog which covers all the important announcements.

To get started using Silverlight 2 Beta 1, the Silverlight "Get started" page has all the downloads you need (towards the bottom of the page). Note however that if you install the Microsoft Silverlight Tools Beta 1 for Visual Studio 2008, you will not be needing the Silverlight 2 Beta 1 SDK (which is already included in the VS Add-On and which blocks the installation if present.)

Make sure to remove Silverlight 1.1 Alpha bits (runtime) and SDK as well as the Visual Studio 2008 Add-On for Silverlight 1.1 Alpha before installing the new bits.

The SDK has all the Visual Studio help system documentation, but does not provide the stand-alone CHM file which I usually like to keep open in the background. You can however download the SDK's CHM from here.

In order to get the Silverlight SDK documentation to be displayed by the Visual Studio help system, you have to follow the following steps:

1. Open Visual Studio (you might have to open VS as an administrator).
2. In the Help menu, choose Index. Microsoft Document Explorer displays.
3. In the Filtered by: drop-down, choose to (unfiltered).
4. In the Look for field, type Collection Manager.
5. Below the Collection Manager heading, double click Help.
6. Below the Collections available for inclusion in VSCC heading, check Microsoft Silverlight 2 SDK Documentation.
7. Click Update VSCC.

BradleyB has a great write-up on his blog on how to exactly install the bits and solve possible trouble you might be hitting.

Finally, to learn what's new in Silverlight 2 Beta 1, these links will provide useful:

• Silverlight gallery including Silverlight 2 Beta 1 samples
• Silverlight 2 Beta 1 quick starts / sample code
• Silverlight 2 Beta 1 Hands-on labs

And, totally off topic, check out the awesome Internet Explorer 8 shirt worn by Dean Hachamovitch during the Mix08 keynote: